Did any of you develop irrational fears of injuring yourself?

I've finally gotten back into lessons again after my 12+year break where I did not skate at all due to ongoing boot/foot issues that I did not think could be resolved. I decided to start slowly after I got my new boots/blades in late spring, as although my brain remembers how things should work, everything below my shoulders seems to have muscle memory amnesia. I basically feel as though I am starting from scratch here. Before I quit skating, I had made it into the LTS Freestyle 2 group and was also doing some beginner ice dance (had learned Dutch Waltz).

Anyway....what I was totally not prepared for upon beginning lessons again was my sudden intense fear of falling and injuring myself. Back in my mid-20's, I'd just do my thing and not worry about it. Now (just having turned 40...eek!) I am just freaked out at the thought of falling. I was dealing with it ok, until Sunday when my 12 year old and I went to a public session, my only goal being doing as many laps as I could using good stroking technique (the one skill that did not leave me...lol). I took two steps onto the ice and my left leg went flying out from under me. Regained my composure and tried again to move and *again* leg goes out from under me. By this point, I was completely unnerved. I made it a few more steps (now clinging to the wall, which I have NEVER DONE. Ever!) and my daughter tells me to stop b/c something had fallen off the bottom of my blade. It was a piece of candy (looked like a Jolly Rancher that had been sucked flat...lol) that I had the misfortune to manage to step on right as I got on the ice and did not realize it. What makes this even more annoying is that I did not even fall...I manage to catch myself both times before I completely wiped out. But I know that if I *had* gone down, it would not have been pretty. And I think the "what if" is what is getting to me.

I feel like a complete buffoon for letting this bother me like it has. I probably would not have been nearly as unnerved by the Jolly Rancher incident had it not been my left foot that flew out from under me. That's of course the foot I have deeply rooted trust issues with already. It just makes no sense to me how I can suddenly be so freaking scared. I had a great lesson a week ago, felt confident and like things were starting to come back (3 turns are coming back, edges getting better and better, crossovers though not great are coming back, etc), my lesson this past Saturday was good as well. So what the heck is wrong with me?

Ugh. Thanks for reading. I am just trying so hard to get this worked out in my head so that I can get over it and move on. No stinking piece of hard candy is gonna bring me down! LOL.

I feel your pain.. no pun intended. But I tend to hurt myself doing non- skating things. In August I herniated a disc washing my bathtub and in May sprained ligaments in my lower back putting on my skateguard. Ok so that one was related to skating but still I was not on the ice.

I am 44 yrs old and the fear of falling and getting hurt is a possible reality. Know what.. it's not so irrational to fear injury, that may not help you but when you have responsibilties it is allways a fear. Weather the responsibilities are work or taking care of your family or both, it is very frightening to imagine yourself disabled for any amount of time. But.. like I said before at least with myself most of my more serious injuries occured doing non skating activities and when I have become injured through skating it usually was not the fall itself that did the damage. Once it was the 'twist' going into a sit spin, once I didn't 'fall' but collided into the boards and well.. broke my pinky. You get the picture.

The question you have to ask yourself (I think) is do you want to skate and take that risk? If the answer is yes you will eventually overcome your fear. Maybe start to take lessons again with a good coach you feel confident in. And keep on the lookout for those jolly ranchers. I always make it a habit to stroke around when I first get on the ice and check out the condition of the ice, including foreign objects. It helps with the confidence.

LOL. Yeah, I have hurt myself far worse doing non-skating things than I ever have skating. I fell off a curb over the summer while walking with my 3 year old and really banged myself up but good.

I know I do want to skate. I've really been enjoying being back tremendously. I have a feeling I'll feel much better after my lesson on Saturday...I tend to feel far less inept when I'm in my lesson than I do when I'm out on my own. And you can bet I'll be scanning the area where I'm about to step with a lot more care from here on out.

I've seen far worse than Jolly Ranchers (like GUM) on the floor. And sometimes it's not on the floor but on the ICE and I have to ask the ice monitor to pick it up!!! Let's just say I'm fortunate that I wear blade guards now.

I think you are just freaked by the Jolly Ranchers and if you give yourself some time on the ice, you may not only find your confidence again but get back your skills AND THEN SOME!!!

Good luck and welcome back to the ice!!! (And watch out for those Jolly Ranchers!!! )

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

LOL. This one was on the ice, too. You can bet I'll be checking out where I'm about to step a lot more carefully from here on out. I've been going to the same rink for more than a dozen years, and this is the first time I have ever stepped on anything while on the ice. It is not a sensation I wish to repeat!

I'm sure that's what it is. I keep trying to remind myself that I was *just fine* in my lesson the day before (and in the 6 weeks prior...lol). My logical mind says I'm being an idiot, but I can't shake that freaked out feeling I got when my leg went flying.

My husband is threatening to leave Jolly Ranchers in strategic locations through our house and on my pillow. He's having a great time teasing me mercilessly about this.

I stepped on a WHITE gum wrapper last week that someone had dropped on the ice. Totally unseeable, I had a nice flight with a soft landing. (Put my other foot down, lol)

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ITA. I'm 61, and broke my wrist in a freak fall years ago. That put enough fear in me to hold me back for a good two years. There are times when I wish I weren't skating, but since I'm also coaching now, I really can't stop. The alternative for me would be an office job, which would probably put 50 pounds on me. It's healthier to skate!!!

I have had to consciously work to rid my mind of fear. Music helps, so if you can wear an ipod at the rink, or if you like their music, let yourself skate with it. I also have modified versions of things that I do to warm up before I feel ready for the "real" version. The more you skate, the safer you will feel. I also wear gel knee pads, because I know I can't risk a damaging fall to my knees.

Stepping on things - I once got on the ice and felt my L foot slipping as if the blade were completely flat. Got to the other side and saw a huge gob of clear tape stuck to it! The part that was on the blade itself was fortunately flat, or I would probably have fallen. That got me back to using my blade guards all the time!

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I left skating at age 19, after doing serious injury to both knees. I don't know if I was "any good" back then but I sure wasn't afraid to jump! I would hurl myself into the air without a snowball's chance in ..... heck of landing the jump and get up and do it again. I would throw myself into a spin with nary a care and if it ended like a frog in a blender, it didn't matter.

After wrecking my knees more than 30 years went by before I even thought about skating again and then, at the ripe old age of 56, I came back but the 'reckless abandon' of youth is long gone. I SHOULD be jumping now - I would be if I could find that "commit to it and damn the consequences" mentality.

In my case I know it is not just 'fear of getting hurt' - I have sustained enough injuries in my 3 years that I expect to get hurt - but I do have a subconscious fear of totally committing to a jump. I know it is irrational but another injury like 37 years ago would take me off the ice for the rest of my life and that's the last thing I want! But my desire to jump is STRONG so it just has to overcome the fear. Heck, at my age, having a full set of jumps for Bronze Free would do wonders for "my competitive career" ROFLMAO!!!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

When I started to skate again at age 50, it did indeed feel like I was starting all over. I scraped about for several laps wondering where the skill went. Within a couple sessions I started to feel more at home on the ice, but it took a long while to regain all that I had as a teenager.

Also I didn't fear falling at 50, but it's probably a guy thing and the fact that I undertook very risky sports when I was younger. I was always willing to toss myself into the air for various reasons.

However I have noticed that I'm avoiding jumps lately (age 58 now) and I feel crashes more deeply despite my protective padding. I guess we all slow down with age. My turn has come.

About foreign objects on the ice...I hit a wooden shard from a shattered hockey stick once during a public session. I was cruising along very fast and WHAM! - it put me into the boards loudly. Kind of embarrasing!

The worst example of foreign objects on ice was a blatent attempt to topple skaters by one idiot tossing pennies. I couldn't believe someone would try to do that on purpose, but there were dozens of pennies scattered about the ice. I saw the culprit and how he laughed about it with his fellow goon. The skate guards wouldn't do anything about it either. Unbelievable!

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Bill Schneider

I did one better a few years ago on a "disco" session (which means they save on the electric by switching most of the lights off) when I skated into the bubble wrap which had fallen out of some hockey skaters boot. I took a not so nice flight onto the ice.

I hope you don't have any more incidents with Jolly Ranchers or any other unwanted items on the ice. and you're confidence and skills will return, the hardest part is starting again, and you've done that now...

I came back to skating at 50ish, having not really skated seriously since I was 18. Sure, I'd gone to public skating once or twice a year with the kids, but that was about it. And yes, I'm afraid of falling. When I was just starting out again I was at a public session and a little kid fell literally right in front of me. The only thing I could do was to fall myself, as I would have either run over him or fallen on him. I hurt so much from that fall that, while nothing was broken, I could barely walk for 3 months.

I gave up skating for two years after that. When I came back I was really scared, but I hung in there, and I have loosened up over time. But... I still do not like to fall, and will not fall if I can help it. So I only try jumps I know I can land. Maybe two footed, maybe pretty ugly, but land.

I find things hurt much more now when I do fall. Did the toe pick thing the other day and fell flat on my stomach. Hurt like heck for a few days. I used to be able to fall like that and just brush it off, but no more.

Gosh, dbny -- at 61, I thought I was the oldest one here! Of course, maybe I still am, depending on when our respective birthdays are

I was skating pretty regularly, taking a weekly private lesson plus skating two or three additional times a week, until two-and-half years ago when I broke my wrist while doing back power perimeter crossovers. And I was just FINALLY getting good at them ! After getting back on the ice a couple of months later I continued to skate, albeit somewhat tentatively, for another year or so. I even went to an adult summer skating camp and had a great time. Then I broke my ankle -- NOT skating, mind you, just walking up my deck stairs and that one kind of spooked me. Coupled with other things going on in my life, including my elderly father's increasing needs and other family issues, I found one excuse after another to not skate . . . and now it's been over two years.

I am afraid of falling and breaking something else (especially, God forbid, a leg, arm or hip); yet I still have my skate bag packed, and when people ask me if I still skate, I find that I'm not yet ready to say an absolute "no." So there's obviously some (actually, a lot of!) ambivalence there.

My physical fitness has definitely suffered, since I haven't replaced skating with something equally strenuous (I hear ya, dbny, about those added pounds that creep on). I'm thinking of contacting my old coach -- if she'll still have me -- after the holidays and seeing if she'll teach me figures. That, and just good ole' stroking around the rink, might be the most I can do, but it would be more than I'm doing now. I think the days of jumping and spinning -- or, more accurately, attempting to jump and spin -- are long gone for me, but maybe I can still find joy in whatever I might be able to do.

Good luck to you in finding your own way back to skating . . . just think how young you are compared to Bill S., dbny and myself

You just summed up the story of my skating in a single sentence!

I skated as a teenager. I only did group classes, but had got to the stage of doing basic jumps when the rink I skated at closed down permanently. I went to a few public sessions at another rink in the years following, and then didn't skate at all for several years.

When I came back to it I could still skate forwards quite competently, but everything else was basically gone, and now (at 38) I am deeply afraid of injuring myself, and this feeling isn't getting any better. Admittedly, part of the issue for me is that I am only able to skate once a week, so I never get a chance to build on any good sessions/lessons and develop the confidence and control that I really need.

The stupid thing is that I've never actually injured myself when I have fallen - I've had worse bruises bumping into furniture! I've only had a couple of really sudden, out of the blue, falls. Generally, when I do find myself falling, I tend to recognise when I'm not going to recover and just go with the fall, rather than trying to save myself, so it's basically a non-event. But it still spooks me - I now despair at ever being able to do the Rhythm Blues again because I've fallen so often on the cross behinds that I can no longer bring myself to do them. Never hurt myself physical, but am mentally scarred!

I do frequently ask myself if I'm doing the right sport, if it's going to scare me that much. I do, however, love skating despite all this, and, perhaps unfortunately, I'm stubborn enough that I don't like letting the fear get the better of me! But yeah, I be doing a lot better if I could only get my head in order!

I'm the type of person that can trip over air and sprain an ankle...but am more graceful on the ice-weird I know. I will be 47 soon and only skated a bit as a teen. I have been skating for over 5 years now and although at first didn't think I would JUMP, I am now looking forward to learning some new ones.

Last year I herniated my lumbar region moving furniture at home, but still managed to teach tiny tots beginning skating and keep up my skating (even though one leg was numb and in excrutiating pain from sciatica). I had surgery in February and am slowly mending.

I had my first big fall this past Sunday since returning to the ice but it wasn't too bad and I'm over it.

Life can be dangerous no matter what you do. You can either sit on the couch and say "I wish I would have..." or you can put your skates on and join the game and no matter what happens you can then say "I'm glad I did it while I still could!"

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

I've never really been afraid of skating or falling. I started skating when I was about 16 or 17, took ten years off, came back as an instructor, and now I coach and occasionally skate for myself.

I'm more afraid of being on the ice with the zamboni or a hockey player with a puck. *shudders*

I've had a few bad falls with injured knees, shoulder, back and (worst of all) head banging whiplash. I've also had a number of falls where nothing bad happened - I sat or slid down and got right back up. If you want to progress, you have to overreach a bit and risk falling.

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My fear is falling and breaking a wrist, so I always wear inline skating wrist guards, and occasionally when I'm working on something new, elbow guards. The good thing about being short is no matter how hard I fall on my knees it doesn't hurt!
My worst injury was in doing a Jenkins spiral (why this simple maneuver is not taught to beginners I have no idea). I caught my toepick on something on the ice (bobby pin? kleenex? charm from a bracelet? stalagmite?), and in the struggle to stay up managed to stab the back blade of my active leg into my knee and then the blade ran up to my thigh . Just another one of those injuries that I can never quite figure out how I did it.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

I'm coaching adult group lessons this year and every single one of them is afraid of falling. Several of them have taken to wearing various kinds of pads, some of which are designed so that you can't see them. Some of the adult skaters I know wear helmets. Wear whatever makes you feel comfortable. I coach hockey as well and most of the kids can't believe we go out without any pads at all on.

Some of you might also want to talk to your rink managers about objects on the ice not necessarily being part of the assumed risk you take when you skate. Some things can't be helped but since hockey players are not allowed to even touch any part of a broken hockey stick during play because it's dangerous, no rink manager should be leaving pieces parts of one on the ice during public or figure skating. That has LAWSUIT written all over it in big shiny neon letters. (So do the pennies!)

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

I'll be 62 in March. Do I win? I broke my wrist on the Pre-Preliminary BI edge pattern - how's that for humiliating? At least you were moving! Was it the click of death? I think doing figures is a great idea, but you might find that just stroking will lead to more!

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Hey DBNY, that's not a humiliating accident! I recall someone at the adult camp in Hackensack a few years ago having a similar accident. And when I broke my ankle, it wasn't on anything too hard... just before a bunny hop, IIRC, when I had stepped forward and just lost my balance.

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August 22, back on the ice!

I skated for a year as a kid, and then came back after 22 years off the ice at age 34. I had a lot of fear of injury when I first started out, but I realized after about my 1,000th fall that they usually don't cause any damage. (Of course, one of my coach's favorite sayings is "If you're not falling, you're not trying!!") All of my real injuries in the last few years have occurred off-ice, from lifting things that I shouldn't, over-stretching, or other stupid activities. I still have fear in some things, which is why I can't seem to pull in enough to land a double jump. Getting pads can definitely help with the fears, at least until you are more comfortable. After smacking my knee too many times, I wore a knee pad for about a year so I wouldn't have to worry about it. I think that the more you skate, the more confidence you will get, and the fear will diminish as you do the skills over and over.

Yes, you win! I don't turn 62 until April. And yes, it was the click of death that caused me to break my left wrist when I stupidly tried to break my fall

I was a competitive skater as a kid but left skating at the age of 13. I started back again 35 years later and found that all my skills came back pretty quickly but I suspect I will never do my doubles again as they scare the heck out of me. But I really don't have any fears about doing any single jumps even axels. I took one of the worst falls ever first time I tried a jump after 35 years off the ice. It was a waltz jump and I caught my toe pick in the ice and did a belly flop boy did that knock it out of me. But I persevered and things do come back a bit shaky at first but as confidence increases so does your skills. So never let fear keep you from trying. I have never been hurt by any falls and I have taken so really BIG ones, sure maybe a big bruise and sore ego but never broken anything. But as a kid I had many more injuries from skating mainly the need for stitches as I seem to have had a lot of run ins with skate blades!

I WON something!!! If it's any consolation to you, I know Sarah Hughes broke her arm on XO's at some point and actually wanted to quit. You can't say it was stupid to try to break your fall, because in those cases when things happen so fast, it's reflex that causes your arm to go out to protect your head from an impact.

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Sounds pretty much like me. I took my very first skating lesson at age 27, took group classes for 5 years, quit for 5 years, then came back to the ice at 37. I am almost 44 now and working on doubles. I like to avoid falling if I can, but of course I fall sometimes. I mainly just try to avoid BAD falls. The important thing is to try new things but only things that are the next logical progression from the skills you've already learned. That ensures that you have the balance and control you need to do them and if you do fall, it won't be a bad fall.
BTW, when you have your first lesson, I would suggest practicing controlled falls and getting tips on how to keep your balance. For example, my coach always tells me shoulders need to be level and I need to keep my back arched and knees bent so that my chest is lined up over my knees and my knees are right over my toes. As long as you're doing that, you are very unlikely to have an uncontrolled fall.
Just to counter all of the injury stories people are posting here (like those would actually make you less afraid, LOL!), in almost 12 years of skating, I've never broken anything or gotten a concussion. My worst injuries have been bruises and a few cuts and I am older than you, so don't worry! Just try to skate smart.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I will be 63 in March.

I started again at age 52 after a hiatus of 30 years.

I had a knee rebuilt in 1968 and took 30 years to get up the courage to get out on the ice again.

I don't jump anymore because of arthritis in my lower back. I have taken up figures and am working on Figures 1...

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!